Rent could be $200 a month and those drugged up alcoholics wouldn’t be able to hold a job to pay for it.
There's that element and always has been but the problem has grown beyond drug addicts and alcoholics. Misfortune doesn't discriminate or target the vulnerable. When society, in the example I cited the cities eliminating start homes* through zoning, it has been a gradual process that restructured entire home pricing grids that artificially raised home prices, apartment rents, etc.
*as defined/described by minimum lot size, square footage